In 2010 Münster will become a diverse and exciting REGION OF CULTURE (KULTURGEBIET). Nine completely newly conceived series of events will be presented, both unusual and familiar. They are self-contained and cleverly woven together, with an international and local flavour.

Major cultural institutions as well as representatives of the city’s independent scene have devised and developed a programme with the Cultural Department of the City of Münster – a programme that is arresting, innovative, distinctive and forward-thinking. It cuts across genres, institutions and generations and displays the distinctive cultural characteristics of Münster.

It is no coincidence that the event series, REGION OF CULTURE, is taking place in Münster when the neighbouring Ruhr region is celebrating its designation as European Capital of Culture. Münster affirmed its cultural profile during the application process as a competing applicant in 2003 and 2004.

KULTURGEBIET Münster 2010

OPENING

Stephan US: in ←→ out breathClub Guy and Roni: Pinball and Grace

The opening event of the REGION OF CULTURE moves between a gentle art performance and a spectacular combination of theatre, dance and music. Stephan US completes his project ‘in ←→ out breath’, in which people from Münster sent their breath to 150 different countries. The sent-back breath will be set free again in the Städtische Bühnen.

To follow, the internationally renowned dance choreographers, Guy Weizman and Roni Haver, in cooperation with the Slagwerk Den Haag group, will put eight dancers and six percussionists into the insides of a pinball machine.

SCENE: HUNGARY IN NRW

International Cultural Programme in Münster

In 2010 Münster is also taking part in the national joint project of the international cultural exchange ‘scene: …in nrw’. Münster is involved in the project for the eighth time and, as one of 14 cities in NRW (North-Rhineland-Westphalia), is showcasing the multifaceted culture of Hungary. Writers, such as György Konrád and György Dalos, musicians, like the band Pop Ivan and Zsolt Sorés, as well as artists such as András Gàlik and Bálint Havas, will show and perform their work in different locations around the city.

INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAYS MÜNSTER 2010

The fact that the world-famous German Tanztheater (dance theatre) has its roots in Münster is not even well-known among experts. It was here that the choreographic career of the legendary expressionist dancer, Kurt Jooss, the co-founder of today’s Folkwang University, started. Since the 90s, this tradition has been carried on by Daniel Goldin of the Münster City Theatre. The Theater im Pumpenhaus has been the location for new developments and trend-setting work for 25 years.

For the first time these two institutions for dance in Münster will join forces and present a range of international guests, including: Susanne Linke, Rosas, Jérôme Bel, Urs Dietrich, José Navas and Hotel Pro Forma.

DOES CITY/MÜNSTER MATTER?

dynamic visions – steadfast gives

Pictures are instruments for both staging and decoding a city – pictures that appear material (architecture), structurally or rather scenically laid out (routes/light effects) or that address mental aspects (social/ mixed identificatory areas). As a consolidating device, pictures format surfaces and locate stories: they smooth out complexity and can construct new realities in a location that are sometimes more formative than the actual circumstances. The recognition, reading and interpretation, but also the creation and working mechanisms, of such urban pictures are the themes of this group exhibition in the AzKM.

Following the investigation of city identity in ‘heute hier, morgen dort’ (2004/5), the AzKM focuses again on urban phenomena in the city of Münster in Autumn 2010. ‘Does City/Münster matter?’ emerges from artistically imagined image concepts, arising from the fascination with urban connections and the pictures that result from them.

HALBSTARK

International Theatre Festival for 9-13 Year Olds

They are enterprising and curious through-and-through, want to experience something and to be entertained – but in the theatre world there is a demonstrable lack of work written or staged for them. The 9-13 year olds hover somewhere between children’s and youth theatre. The festival revolves around ten productions about these powerful, but not yet grown-up, young people – the ‘Halbstarken’, or, teenagers.

The renowned Dutch director and artistic director of the festival, Silvia Andringa, has developed a programme that shows intimate as well as thrillingly sensational theatre productions from home and abroad.

spurweXel 2010

Between May and December there will be a focus inside and outside the city boundaries of Münster – with 10 events in 10 different locations. The ‘spurweXel’ (lane change) offers innovative formats, interactions, new forms of presentation, exciting stimuli and surprising locations. Young art across genres: dance, theatre, performance, music and installation bring divergent youth-culture scenes in contact with one another and presents a never-before-seen collaboration.

STATEMENTS

The Festival. The Dance. The Theatre.25 Years of the Theater im Pumpenhaus

The Theater im Pumpenhaus turns 25. We are inviting you along and creating the largest theatre and dance festival in the city’s history. ‘Statements’ means around the world in 58 days. We begin in Münster and go from Abidjan to Seoul, from New York to Tokyo.

The Pumpenhaus shows what its success is made of: the desire for experimenting, the search for a recognisable signature, far removed from ratings and propagated trends and the instinct for hip statements. The results are declarations of love from friends, partners, trend-setting directors and choreographers to the ephemeral mediums: dance and theatre. Our festival is a ‘thank you’ to the city and its public. ‘Statements’ is your celebration. Our celebration.

FOCUS LITHUANIA

Masterworks of Black-and-White Photography since 1960

The 150 black-and-white photographs from Lithuania breath the history of a land and its people, offering Western viewers a rare visual experience. The 11 artists present the many variations of life and the art of black-and-white photography in Lithuania: the repression and stagnation under the Soviet regime, the hard life of the people, the changes in the city and the countryside after the fall of communism, the city structures and landscapes, but also the everyday life and lifestyle of the younger generation, up until the present day.

SUMMERWINDS MÜNSTERLAND

International Woodwind Festival

Classical, jazz and world music from the woodwind instruments of the world. In 40 concerts with internationally renowned musicians ‘summerwinds Münsterland’ present saxophone, clarinet, recorder, flute, traverse flute, oboe, bassoon and the Turkish ney. From the symphony orchestra to the Trio d’anches, from the Jazz Big Band to the Crossover-Saxophone-Quartet, nearly all types of woodwind instruments are represented.

Münster and the Münster region, discovered through music: music can be heard in castles, churches, businesses, select venues and in the open air. Several concerts are complemented with a presentation about wind and breath, about their metaphoric status in cultural history as well as the location itself.

NEUE WÄNDE

Student Culture at the Städtische Bühnen Münster

50,000 students live in the cultural city of Münster and they have created and occupied their own innovative, impulsive and at times improvised cultural locations. For the first time, the two-day festival, NEUE WÄNDE (New Walls), takes student culture out of the niches and onto the main stages of the city, creating new impulses for the fertile connection between high culture and the city’s population. The idea for this crossing of cultural borders stemmed from the journalist Klaus Baumeister. The festival is run by Dr. Ortwin Lämke (Director of the Studiobühne), Dr. Walter Lindenbaum (Institut für Musikpädagogik) and Beate Reker (organiser). The festival is hosted by the Kulturamt der Stadt Münster and the WWU (represented specifically by the Cultural Office).

The preparation and realisation of this comprehensive exhibition of youth and university culture was done in collaboration with several hundred students in many different roles. What is envisioned is a mix of ‘best-of’ events and new, rehearsed programme pieces from the mainstream and avant-garde. From comedy to symphony concerts, from the Shakespeare performance to new literature, from the cultivated art of debate to crazy rap, the students show what is hidden within them. City and students move – one another.

MAGUS DAYS MÜNSTER

Language Festival. Exchange of Words with Johann Georg Hamann

The ‘Magus Days Münster’ is a multidisciplinary and multi-voiced language festival that takes its cue from the great disciple of language and author Johann Georg Hamman, who died in Münster in 1788 as the ‘Magus of the North’.

The Magus Days take place in 2010 for the first time. They follow the theme ‘Without the word, no world. How people are able to speak’. The Magus Days illuminate current questions in society, literature and the linguistics – concerning the life problem of the stutterer, Hamann. ‘Without word, no reason – no world’, wrote the Magus: only through language does reason exist, does the world exist. What Hamann so resolutely asserted, has still not been clearly explained by science: why and how are people able to speak? How does one think about the connection between thinking and speaking, body and speech? Can one think without language? Are there non-linguistic forms of reason? How does poetic language, or the language of daily life and of science, fix how we think in a word? How does my, ones, our world exist through language and speaking? Renowned writers, scientists, actors and musicians exchange words about language.

TITANIC – SPECIAL VERSION

Theater Titanick celebrated its 20th birthday in 2010 in Münster with a staging of ‘Titanic – Special Version’.

The classic work of the Theater Titanick will be performed once more on Aasee lake, the original stage of its creation. The internationally praised, multi-award winning open-air staging of ‘Titanic’, returns to its Münster home after 220 performances in Europe, Australia, Asia, North-, Central- and South America..